Solar heated, superinsulated house heats and cools itself

April 11, 2007 by Jeff.

This house heats and cools itself with no furnace and no air conditioning.  Looks pretty normal, doesn’t it?  That was the idea – I designed it to look like the typical American farmhouse – and spent about ten years building it in my head before breaking ground.  It employs active solar hot-air and superinsulation to maintain a comfortable living environment in upstate New York.

Completed in 1996, the house looks out over the Catskills and Helderbergs from a high and windy hilltop in Westerlo NY.  Westerlo lies 15 minutes southwest of Albany but is 1500 feet higher in elevation.  When it rains in Albany, it snows in Westerlo.  It’s a great place to prove how well theory translates to fact.

In the next few posts I’ll explain my goals in designing the house, the features that make it self-sustaining for heating and cooling, and some thoughts on what I would do differently next time.

Design mantras

From the start I wanted to evoke the typical American farmhouse: two story, steep roof, ells and porches everywhere.  Too many energy-efficient houses have given up style and visual comfort for performance.  It turns out you can have both as long as you’re willing to build in energy conservation, not just energy generation.

I wanted a house that was easy to live in, eliminating any need to fuss with cranky technology typical of solar heat.

I wanted a house that was fun to live in.  There are balconies, lofts, public and private areas where people can be together or find time alone when they want to.

I wanted a house that feels comfortable within the larger environment, in this case an organic farm.  I was the farmer, and the house needed to do its part to keep the farm efficient and successful.

I wanted a house that would stand for several lifetimes.  Too many houses today rot away long before their mortgages are paid off.  This is a house to spend a lifetime in and I built it to last.

This side faces north.  I’ve been teased that the windows look like gunports.  North-facing windows are for ventilation only – egress windows go elsewhere.  (Note: bathrooms do not need egress windows)  The view from this side is just hillside, so I went with the smallest windows possible.  They are there for summer ventilation.  The two propane tanks are for domestic hot water (yes, there should be solar hot water but I never got around to it) and a tiny gas-fired woodstove in the corner of the living room.

Here’s the east side.  It’s the “service” area of the house: driveway, back door, garage and herb garden.  To keep dirty shoes out of the kitchen, there is a mudroom and half bath just inside.  The long bumpout houses the kitchen and a small breakfast nook.

And finally the west side – facing the prevailing winds.  These windows satisfy egress rules and provide wide, sweeping views of the mountains from the living room and den.  The increased summer heat load was worth it.  I realize the appearance of this side is a little stark, but the wooded hillside it faces doesn’t care.

In a later post I’ll discuss the foundation and shell and we’ll get more into the philosophy and engineering of superinsulated houses.

Posted in Tools and Techniques, Energy Generation, New construction | 4 Comments »